Germany Commuter Allowance Tax Calculator (Pendlerpauschale)

About the Germany Commuter Allowance Tax Calculator (Pendlerpauschale)

Work out the German commuting allowance (Entfernungspauschale, widely called the Pendlerpauschale) and what it saves you in tax. § 9 EStG gives €0,38 for every full kilometre of the one-way distance to your first place of work, from the first kilometre, for every day you travel there: 25 km on 220 days is €2.090,00. Without a car the allowance stops at €4.500 a year; with your own or a company car it has no cap.

The calculator adds home-office days, other work-related expenses and union dues, compares the total with the €1.230 employee allowance (Arbeitnehmer-Pauschbetrag, § 9a EStG) that is deducted from your wages anyway, and works out the tax saving with the § 32a income tax tariff, the solidarity surcharge and church tax. Nothing you type leaves your browser. Without a pass the page gives a free preview of your own result: your own days and distance and the labels of each table’s first rows, with the commuting deduction, the tax saving and every other figure hidden until you unlock it with a Pro pass.

The rules

• Rate: €0,38 for every full kilometre of the distance between home and your first place of work, from the first kilometre, for each working day you go there (§ 9(1) sentence 3 No. 4 EStG). Part kilometres do not count.
• Distance: the shortest road connection; a longer one counts if it is obviously more convenient and you use it regularly. Flights and tax-free shuttle transport by the employer do not count.
• Cap: at most €4.500 a year, except to the extent you use your own car or one provided to you.
• Public transport: ticket costs count where they are higher than the allowance for the year (§ 9(2)).
• Employer benefits: a tax-free job ticket (§ 3 No. 15) and commuting subsidies taxed at 15% (§ 40(2)) reduce the allowance; your payroll tax certificate shows them (§ 41b). A job ticket your employer taxes at the 25% flat rate instead of leaving it tax-free does not reduce it.
• Employee allowance: €1.230 a year is deducted from wages without proof; work-related expenses only help above it (§ 9a). Union dues are deducted on top of it.
• Home office: €6 for each day you work mainly at home and do not go to your first place of work, at most €1.260 a year (§ 4(5) No. 6c).

How the tax saving is worked out

Only the part of your work-related expenses above €1.230 lowers your tax, because the allowance is deducted anyway; union dues come on top. The calculator takes that amount off your taxable income and works out the income tax, the solidarity surcharge and church tax both ways with the § 32a tariff: the difference is your saving. With a marginal rate instead, it multiplies the amount by the rate (and church tax on it); that leaves out the surcharge and is a little high when the deduction is large, since the rate falls with income.

People with disabilities

With a degree of disability of at least 70, or at least 50 with a significant impairment of mobility in road traffic, you can claim your actual travel costs instead of the allowance, with official proof of the disability (§ 9(2) sentences 3 and 4 EStG). Enter actual costs above the allowance under other work-related expenses, or work them out with your tax adviser.

Limitations

• One way of travelling for the whole year. If you drove on some days and took the train on others, the cap is worked out over the year in a way this calculator does not split.
• For trips to your first place of work. Business trips, weekly family trips home under a double household and trips without a first place of work follow other rules.
• You enter your taxable income yourself: it should already have the €1.230 employee allowance taken off. Child allowances and income under the progression clause are not included.
• Church tax is taken at 8% or 9% of the income tax; the cap most churches put on it at a share of the taxable income (EKD: Kappung) is not applied, so with a high income the church-tax part of the saving may come out a little lower.
• Uses the current rules and income tax tariff; the calculator names the tax year they are for. An estimate, not tax advice: your tax assessment decides.

Privacy

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